Ring of Fire
by Lilylulu
Summary: Cappie's POV on walking Casey home and the night that happened afterwards.


_**A/N: So after seeing the last scene from last night's episode with Cappie and Casey I was inspired to write this from Cappie's POV and of course with an ending that we all want to see :0) Hope you guys like it. Look forward to your reviews on it.**_

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I was sitting on the random boat in the KT back yard thinking about what Mr. Parkes had just told me. He handed me his card and for the first time in my life I thought the real world maybe wasn't that bad. He was successful and seemed to really love his job and what he was doing in life. I felt compelled to hold on to his business card because I could see myself maybe using it in the future. At this point I was a little drunk from doing the cheap tequila shots with him but still able to realize the wisdom in the advice he was giving me about the real world.

But before I had a chance to think any more about the 'real world' situation Casey came crashing down on the Everest slide in front of me. I guess it was kind of ironic she showed up at the exact same time I was contemplating my future a little bit, given that was the whole reason we broke up several months before. I was actually very surprised to see her there. She had told me earlier that she wasn't going to come to the party so I didn't expect to see her there. I jumped up quickly and went over to her.

"Casey? What are you doing here?" I asked as I reached down to help her up off of the landing mattress.

"I'm having fun, what's it look like Slappie," she responded while playfully punching my chest.

Oh man, she was just about as drunk as I had ever seen her and I knew she didn't need to be left to stroll around in the backyard by herself in the condition she was in.

"Maybe, you're having too much fun," I told her, trying not to sound like her father reprimanding her.

"Hey, I deserve this, even Rebecca agrees," she replied, still with her hands on me sending goose bumps up and down my arms. "Now where's the keg?"

"OK, no more kegs," I said as she spun around in my arms and I caught her from falling. Man did it feel good having my arms back around her. I couldn't help but have a smile on my face. "Let me take you home."

She fought me for a second, trying to show me that she didn't need to get home but just as quickly as she fought, she gave up and let me escort her out the side fence towards the ZBZ house.

Not to sound cliché or anything, but I really didn't have any intention of making any moves on her. I was drunk, she was very drunk and all I really wanted to do was make sure she got home safely and nothing happened to her. Casey is always going to hold that special place in my heart for the rest of our lives and I'm always going to look out for her, despite if it may or may not be the best decision for my heart.

I practically held her up the entire walk back to the ZBZ house, which seemed like it was ten miles away from the KT house that night. We didn't really say much to each other on our way to the ZBZ house. Casey kept mumbling some stuff about Ashleigh that I didn't really understand what she was talking about but just nodded my head like I did.

We made it to the ZBZ lawn finally and I thought we were making good progress when Casey slipped out of my grip and ended up falling in the grass. She was laughing uncontrollably and I had to admit it was pretty funny to me also. After I composed myself I reached my arms down and took her hands into mine to help pull her up. Well, I guess I didn't really have much control over my strength when I did because I pulled a little too hard and she came crashing up against my chest to get into a standing position. I dropped her hands and put my hands around the small of her back to prevent her from falling back down and then there was certainly a moment between the two of us. We stared directly in each others' eyes, completely quiet, not saying a word, not even smiling. I felt my breath hitch in my throat as I just looked into the eyes of the woman I loved more than anything in the world and wondered where everything between us had gone so wrong.

Casey broke our moment by letting her eyes start to droop, losing eye contact with me. I could tell the alcohol was starting to have a sleeping effect on her at this point and decided that I really needed to get her into the house before she fell asleep in the front yard. Luckily she was coherent enough to punch in the code to the front door and the two of us made out way clumsily up the steps and to her room.

It was at this time Casey sort of got another burst of energy and started to talk about Ashleigh again. She then stormed into the room thinking Ashleigh was inside.

"Ash, I have, I have thought of another thing, thing," she yelled as her momentum caused her to fall forward into the room. But of course I was there to hold on to her, vowing to never let her fall.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, come on," I said as I tried to move her over towards the bed.

"Whoa, she's not here. Good," I heard her mumble as she looked around the room and stumbled towards the bed.

"Yeah," I mumbled with a small laugh, not really understanding why Ashleigh not being there would be a good thing.

I finally was able to get her over to the bed and she pretty much just fell back onto it in one big crash. "There you go," I continued to say as she laid back against the pillows.

She let out a sigh as she hit the bed and began to mumble as she stretched out. As I backed away I lightly stroked my hands across her thighs and then patted them in a playful gesture. It was kind of weird how my instinct was to rub her thigh at first but I knew I was crossing my boundaries a little bit there and I think I made up for it by turning it into a pat so she wouldn't feel too uncomfortable.

I turned and slowly made my way back to the door to leave. As I put my hand on the doorknob I turned around to look at her one last time. She looked so beautiful even being as drunk as she was. Her shirt was coming up just a little exposing part of her stomach and her hair was haphazardly brushed around her face. Any man in their right mind could have easily gotten on top of her and had their way with her and I'm not going to lie, it certainly did cross my mind. But I couldn't do that to Casey. She was way too important to me and I felt guilty for even thinking those thoughts.

I knew my time was up, I couldn't stand there staring at her any longer or she probably would have thought I was crazy. So I turned to walk out the door when her voice stopped me.

"Wait!" she said in a loud whisper, causing me to turn back around and look at her.

I wasn't sure what exactly she wanted me to wait for. Was she going to thank me for making sure she got home safe? Did she maybe say it in her drunken state but not really mean it? The questions were running through my head but my brain wasn't in the mood to try and figure out what she wanted. So I leaned my head against the door and shut my eyes briefly, waiting for her to continue talking.

But she didn't say anything else. I watched her giggle lightly as she sat up in the bed and brushed the hair out of her face. And for some reason the situation made me laugh too. It was fun giggling with Casey, even though the two of us really weren't sure what we were laughing about. It kind of took me back to freshman year with her and all the fun times we had together.

"What?" I finally kind of mumbled through my laughs trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

She still didn't say anything but instead started to stand up. I almost wanted to go towards her and make her lay back down, unsure if she was even coherent enough at this point to stand on her own because she sure wasn't able to stand on the way to the ZBZ house. She still continued to laugh as she walked towards me, brushing more of her hair behind her ear. I stood there like a statue, unsure of where this was going.

But my question was very quickly answered as Casey plunged her lips towards mine. I was caught so off guard I let go of the doorknob, slamming the door behind me. And then just as quickly she had me pinned against that same door, kissing me ferociously. At first I gave in and kissed her back. How could you blame me? I have wanted nothing more than to feel her lips against mine like that for the past six months since we broke up. But eventually my brain caught up with my heart and I knew what we were doing was wrong.

"We can't, we can't, we're drunk," I said as I pushed her away from me, probably the hardest thing I ever had to do.

Casey had obviously no intension of listening to me because as soon as I said that her lips were back on mine again. I tried my hardest to fight it. I even tried for a second to not even kiss her back. But there is just something about Casey, something about her that I can't resist. So I began kissing her back, against my better judgment at the moment.

Things progressed quickly as she began to unbutton my shirt. At this point my head was spinning. After all the talks about the future and us not being able to be together, I couldn't understand why she was practically ripping my clothes off at the moment. As much as I didn't want to ruin things, I had to know what her intentions were. There was a brief moment that we both came up for air when I decided to take my chance and push her away from me again.

"What are we doing? Wha—What is this?" I asked looking down into her eyes.

She looked back up into my eyes with a solemn like expression on her face. There wasn't any uncertainty in her eyes; I could tell she wanted this just as much as I did.

"It's a fairytale," she replied with just a hint of a smile on her face.

My breath caught in my throat as she said that to me. A fairytale? It was an odd response but it sort of made sense to me. It was like a Cinderella and Prince Charming moment, two people destined to be together finally getting their chance. This was our chance. This was our time to try this again, make this fairytale romance happen between us.

After she said that the mood softened between the two of us. Our kisses before were ferocious, full of need for each other. But she leaned up and kissed me this time with a bit more softness and gentleness to it that wasn't like before. It took me just a second to get used to the change of pace but it didn't take long before I softly kissed her too as I ran my hands around her waist.

She ripped her scarf off as the two of us made our way over to the bed. I helped her lower herself to the bed and got on top of her. We continued to softly kiss until I sat up and took my shirt off. She did the same to her shirt exposing the lacey bra she was wearing, driving me even crazier. I could tell she didn't like that I sat up and left her for a brief moment because she quickly pulled me back down towards her, running her hands up and down my undershirt and kissing me with just about everything she had.

The entire night was a blur but at the same time I remember everything. I remembered how soft her lips felt as they lightly kissed my collarbone, I remembered how her hair felt brushing against my face as we turned for her to lay on top of me. Everything was so familiar and her scent was intoxicating, leaving me wanting more and more of her as the night went on.

Eventually we both were overcome with sleep, unable to fight the drunkenness and haze from sex.

I woke up before her the next morning and took advantage to just stare at her sleeping for a moment. I was kind of bummed at first I didn't wake up with her in my arms but realized that having her next to me in the same bed was good enough for the moment. She looked so peaceful sleeping, like an angel. I couldn't help but have a small smile come over my face thinking about us, the future us. I know there were probably going to be a lot of questions and a lot of things to discuss when she woke up but I was ready for it. I was ready to let her know that I wasn't going to give up on us this time, I wasn't going to let the uncertainty of my future effect us. Mr. Parkes made me realize that there is some life after college and the real world doesn't have to be so bad.

I was so into my thoughts I didn't notice she started to stir next to me. She looked a little surprised when she opened her eyes and saw me there and my heart sank to the floor, I couldn't take another one night stand with her pushing me out the door as fast as she could.

"Mornin' pretty lady," I said increasing my smile and trying to make the mood as light as possible.

"Oh man, what a night," was all she replied as she stretched her arms in the air and turned on her side to face me.

"Yeah, you sure had quite a bit to drink," I replied, resisting my urge to reach my hand out to touch her since she seemed a little uncomfortable that I was there.

"That's not really what I was talking about," she said softly with a little seductive smile on her face.

"Mmmmmm, I wonder what you were talking about then," I said as I scooted closer to her, my bare leg touching hers under the blanket and sending chills up my spine.

"I certainly can't complain about your abilities in the bed Cap," she replied. "It was pretty wild."

"Thanks," I replied feeling a little embarrassed at her remark.

She sighed as she looked over at the clock.

"I guess we should probably get up," she said. "The homecoming game starts soon and I'm sure you have to get back to KT to set up another big party tonight."

"Nope, no party tonight," I replied. "The KT house is going to be on a drought for a little bit while we take down all the slides and clean up from Everest."

"Oh, OK," was all she replied as she began to turn back over to get out of bed.

But I quickly moved my hand around her bare waist, bringing her back to face me.

"Are we just going to leave things like this?" I asked. "What about last night?"

"Last night was fun," Casey replied avoiding eye contact with me.

"That's it? Just fun," I asked in a more disappointed tone. "What about it being a fairytale?"

"Well that is what it is Cap," Casey replied. "Fairytales aren't real, that's why they are fairytales."

"But why can't we be a real fairytale?" I asked. "No one said fairytales can NEVER come true."

"But nothing has changed Cap," said Casey. "We still have issues with the future. You still have no ambition to graduate and leave this college."

I was not about to have this argument with her again. We've argued way too many times about the future, each without any results. So I decided instead that I needed to make Casey see that what we shared last night was not meaningless, she obviously still had deep feelings for me. I took my hand which was still around her waist and pulled her right up against me, every piece of naked flesh of our bodies touching each other.

"Look at me Casey," I said to her seeing she was still trying to avoid my eyes and looking at my neck.

She slowly lifted her head to look up into my eyes.

"Please tell me that you don't love me," I said to her rather bluntly, hoping to get a little shock out of her and making her think.

And it worked. She was speechless. I saw her begin to open her mouth to try and say it to me but she quickly shut it, realizing that she wasn't able to say it.

"Case, what we feel for each other is real," I said, still looking directly into her eyes and rubbing small circles with my fingers on the side of her bare waist. "You can't deny that."

"I don't deny that Cap," she finally spoke. "Last night would never have happened if I didn't have feelings for you. They are still there; they are always going to be there. I just can't picture a future with you when you're not ready to face the real world yet."

There she went bringing back the real world and the future again. She just can't get it out of her head. I know for a fact that if there was no question about our future we would be together, in love and facing no issues.

"I have been trying so hard to prove to you that I'm looking more towards the future this semester Case," I replied. "I'm studying more, taking morning classes, applying myself and really trying to figure out what I want to do and pick a major. I'm doing this all for you."

"But Cap, I don't want you to do that for me, I want you to do that for yourself and I've told you that," she stated.

"If doing all this means that I can have you then I am doing it for myself," I replied in the most sincere and soft voice that I even surprised myself. "You asked me where I wanted to be in ten years while ago. Well I still feel the same way Casey. As long as I'm with you in ten years I really don't care what I end up doing. I love you. I've never stopped loving you."

I watched as she looked back down at my neck again and then back to my eyes. Her expression was a lot softer, less defensive. I could tell I was finally getting through to her. We were finally making some progress.

"Last night was amazing Case," I continued. "We can do this, just give us another chance. I promise I won't let you down."

I brought my hand down around her back and pulled her even closer to me, if that was even possible. I could feel her lightly shiver against me. She responded by reaching up and brushing a strand of hair out of my face.

"I want us to work," she finally mumbled.

"Then let us work," I quickly said before she could add a 'but' after her statement.

There was a brief pause.

"OK," she finally said.

"OK?" I had to ask, making exactly sure she was saying OK to the two of us getting together and committed to really trying to make us work.

She then pushed me onto my back and was instantly leaning over me, her hair tickling the sides of my face as it fell in front of her. She then leaned down and softly kissed me, sending every nerve in my body into overdrive. I wrapped my arms around her small waist rubbing my hands up and down her back. She then began giving me small kisses down my cheek and then onto my collarbone and neck. I let out a small moan, unable to control what I was feeling anymore. She finally reached my ear and at first began nibbling on it softly, her warm breath driving me crazy as she breathed quickly.

"I can't fight it anymore," she whispered. "I want my fairytale to come true."

And that's all I needed to hear to know that Casey Cartwright and I were together again. I guess fairytales do come true.


End file.
